This invention relates to a portable, asymmetrically displaced ball catching and return device.
A wide variety of ball catching and return devices are known in the art. Particularly with regard to football and golf ball catching devices, a number of solutions to the problems of stopping the forward progress of the ball in a short distance and returning it to the user by means of a device that is practical, and functional, have been attempted. In general, the solution has been to construct a net between a frame that is either very massive or stuck in the ground. Some are provided with a momentum absorbing configuration, such as a rocking base, to absorb the impact and momentum of the incoming ball. Examples of such nets are disclosed by La Rose U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,739 in which the frame is actually stuck into the ground and Lee U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,719 in which rockers are utilized to absorb the shock of impact. Another shock absorbing method is simply to provide an excess of net material. Such devices using excess net are shown in Davidson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,301 and Crawley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,542. Most of these patented devices secure the net at the bottom, and sides or have a rigid bottom edge. Only one, Leneveu, U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,239, has a flexible lower bottom edge that is attached only at two points to the base of the support. The corners of the bottom of the net in Leneveu, however, are only provided limited range of motion along a 45 degree angle from the base to the back of the support. As a result, off center shots, i.e. shots that do not hit in the middle or substantially close to the middle of the net in Leneveu, will ricochet off the net. That is why Leneveu needs side screens.
A drawback to the ball catching devices known in the art is that there is no single device, known to this inventor, that provides impact energy absorption or neutralization which is portable, light weight, easily set up and conveniently stored when not in use and which includes a simple, self-correcting, self-centering reflexive action feature that enables the user to use the device indoors or out and which captures the ball in flight and returns it to the user no matter where the ball impacts the net. Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a portable, self-centering, ball catcher which captures the ball in flight, neutralizes the momentum of the ball, and then gently returns it to the user. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide an improved, portable, self-correcting momentum-neutralizing, self-centering, ball catcher so that an approaching ball is arrested, guided back toward the center within the device, and returned to the user for reuse.